The past decades have shown an ever increasing demand for data capacity of telecommunications networks. Telecommunications providers have adapted their networks to provide extended services to meet the demands of their clients.
One example of such services relates to the field of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. M2M applications typically involve hundreds or thousands of communication modules that only rarely require access to a telecommunications network. An example involves the electronic reading of e.g. electricity meters at the homes of a large customer base. Other examples include sensors, meters, coffee machines etc that can be equipped with communication modules that allow for reporting status information to a data processing centre over the telecommunications network. The data processing centre may e.g. store the data and/or provide a schedule for maintenance people to repair a machine, meter, sensor etc.
M2M communication systems are typically characterized by the fact that, most of the time, the communication modules have nothing or only a limited amount of data to report. However, for some applications or in some situations, such as alarming, it is required that data can rapidly be sent from a communication module to a data processing centre, e.g. within seconds.